5 Reasons You Should Look Into Your Gym’s Online Reputation

Before you do business with anybody, it is important to check out their reputation. That even includes the gym you want to join. Why is “background checking” your gym important?

1. Independent Reviews are More Trustworthy

It’s easy to collect some great testimonials and publish them on your business’s website. Any company can do this. If you really want to find out what people think of the gym you want to join, you want to see what they’ve said about it independently. Review websites are a great way to get an idea about the real experiences people have had with your potential gym.

2. Make Sure You Aren’t Paying Too Much

It’s easy enough for a gym to tell you that it offers the best rates in town. Before the Internet, you’d have to go all over the place to find out if that is actually true. Thanks to the web, now you can find out that information within a few minutes and maybe with a couple of phone calls. You can check rates and compare fees (like early termination, etc). Even better, you can print out proof of these prices to show to the gym you want to use to find out if they’ll match the price point of someone else to keep your business.

3. Background Check Employees

There are a lot of people out there claiming to be personal trainers and fitness experts. Very few of them have actually done the work to earn that reputation. Checking out the experts and trainers at your gym ensures that you will be working with someone who actually knows what he or she will be talking about. You can look into that person’s education, their experience, etc.

4. Neighborhood Safety Check

Chances are high that you are going to be going to the gym early in the mornings or later in the evenings. You want to make sure that you will be safe getting to and from your vehicle (or the nearest public transit stop) when you want to work out. It’s easy to look up crime statistics online. Check out the area right around your gym and see what the rates are for things like assault and robbery. If the rates are high, you should definitely look into working out somewhere else.

5. Business Reputation Check

Do you want to give your money to a gym that then makes donations to campaigns or causes you find repugnant? Of course not. It’s easy enough to go online and find out what kind of contributions your potential gym makes to these sorts of things. Even more importantly, you can find out whether or not they are actually working to keep their equipment up to date and in good condition. You can find out what kind of care they take of their building. You can find out what their grade was after their last health and safety inspections. You don’t want to work out somewhere that has all sorts of fines and violations, do you?

There are all sorts of reasons to check out the gym you’re thinking of joining. These are just five of them. Thankfully, the Internet makes checking out a business far easier than it has ever been before. Now, with a quick Google search, you can find out just about anything you want or need to know—which definitely makes it easier for you to make the most informed decision possible.

Byline: Erin Steiner is a freelance writer from Portland, Oregon, who writes about physician reputation, best practices for managing reputations online, and a variety of other topics.

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